


Confrontation

by Milana16



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: 1million ways Golden Pair confessed to each other, Fluff, Fuji was bored, Gen, M/M, Seigaku, and Tezuka had his reasons to let that happen, and grammar, probably, so beware of typos, those kids are brats to each other, unbetaed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-21
Updated: 2016-10-21
Packaged: 2018-08-23 19:34:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8340013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Milana16/pseuds/Milana16
Summary: Eiji was sure they were careful enough not to get caught. Then again, he was also sure Fuji was bored- he only wondered if it was of his crushing, pining or hiding. Well, he could deal with his friend, but why must genius drag Oishi and other Regulars into it as well?





	

They were careful, he was sure. Still, the position he and his partner in doubles (and more) have been for last thirty seconds, literally pressed back to back and surrounded by other Regulars like two deers caught in the circle of predators, did a lot to deny rightfulness of this thought, mused Eiji, as he felt Oishi shift behind him. Causing every other blue-and-white jerseyed boy in the locker room shift their attention to him. Eiji had a ridiculous thought Oishi did that on purpose, to let him run away. Probable, taking into consideration level of thinking Oishi did, worrying on how his partner’s family will react to it (and surprisingly paying a lot smaller attention to his own family’s reaction- not that they didn’t hold a suspicion Oishi’s sister already knew.)

Ridiculous, because Eiji wouldn’t even think about abandoning his best friend and more-for-around-three-months in any situation- they may be a couple usually condemned from society, but they were also partners, damn it!

…Which didn’t change the situation very much, unfortunately. And here he hoped they’d be able to get to that parfait shop again and hang out for a little longer, since Tezuka was locking up…

Fuck his luck. He should have started getting suspicious after Tezuka and Fuji simultaneously inquired to talk to them- he knew about divide and conquer strategy better than anyone in the team, he after all was number one specialist when it got to using it against his siblings and their newest “for life” spouses that wouldn’t hold another month in Kikumarus’ close proximity.

Oishi differed from most people in that as well. Plus, his parents liked Oishi much more than they seemed to like another boyfriends and girlfriends of his siblings…so maybe…

That wasn’t what he was supposed to be thinking about right now! He was supposed to be thinking about how far too innocent looked to him the fact that- aside from Taka-san, who usually waited for Fuji, since they had similar route home- most of Regulars were slowing down their usual haste to leave for their respective tasks scheduled for the afternoon.

Eiji cursed his and Oishi’s naivety- Momo and Echizen could slack off, only if to drag somebody into buying them a dinner, and Inui would stay where he could gather the most data, because even project of new juice weren’t as appealing as getting info on his teammates, but they should have known something was up, when Kaidoh didn’t go to start his training.

Kaidoh! Not training! The only times that happened were during tactical meetings, lessons (and Eiji wasn’t even so sure of that) and once he was outed by newest concoction of Inui! None of this was happening now, so why they weren’t wary?!

…Maybe because they felt safe in proximity of tennis or maybe because they were supposed to have some time alone, finally without worry about their future, future of their team, their combination, Oishi’s wrist, Tezuka’s shoulder. Oh, and being discovered by their families…

Which wasn’t such safe of a bet, it looked, as their adoptive family suddenly surrounded their “mother” and his partner with a look that didn’t prompted anything good. Well, not everyone, and Eiji scanned faces of his -he hoped it was still- friends and kouhais; Fuji has his unreadable smile on, and Eiji instantly gave up on this route of escape, even if Taka-san stood next to the tensai, his face obviously showing discomfort at putting his friends in the uncomfortable situation.

The fact, that Fuji stood on his right with unsheathed racquet at ready, proved it could change any moment Fuji found suitable.

Inui stood on the left of Seigaku’s powerhouse, his notebook at ready. Eiji was sure the page he was ready to write on was titled: weaknesses of Golden Pair, or something like that, ever since they crushed his and Kaidoh’s combi in a practice match, even if Emerald Pair played with playstyle that seemed to be perfect counter of Eiji and Oishi’s own, with the stamina challenge and Eiji’s lack of thereof and data collecting to counter Oishi’s statistic, basics-based tennis.

Well, as long as he wasn’t dangling his newest concoction in front of his nose, Eiji wasn’t complaining.

They’ll crush them next time, too, anyway.

As predicted, Kaidoh stood next to his partner, hissing lowly upon seeing part of Inui writing, which only proved his point, Eiji decided. Well, data master be damned but first of his kouhais seemed as if he was taking part in it just as reluctantly as Golden Pair. Which wasn’t reassuring since that meant one of his more respected sempais asked him to do it.

Inui, you jerk.

Now, Eiji had to turn his head to see rest of his teammates, and felt slightly offended.

Why possibly weaker parts of their teammates were guarding Oishi’s end and he was stuck with beings like Fuji and Inui?

Because Oishi is too nice to try and break through them, Fuji-like voice supported what Eiji already knew and redhead glared at brunet.

Sometimes, having best friend in a prodigy was really troublesome, because he used what you told him as a secret without even spilling it out. Like just now. He remembered all too well, the time when he babbled to Fuji about Oishi’s patience, kindness and lack of lying skills…

Oh, no. No, no, no, no.  Fuji will aim the main attack at his partner, and Oishi, having younger sister as well-behaved as himself, won’t know most counters to fend off  their attackers. Because Eiji haven’t had any doubts about the reason of the ambush.

‘Maybe it’s time to end that?’ suggested nervously Momo, standing opposite to his rival. Eiji could see millimeters shifting in Fuji’s face…

And then it hit him.

‘End what, Momo-chin? It’s you who surrounds us.’ he asked calmly, while leaning a bit more to the right. Oishi tilted his head minimally to the left and Eiji moved his own a little forward and then straight up. A hand of his partner bumped innocently at his and that was when Eiji smiled. He loved that they could literally talk without words.

_“Lemme handle that.”_

_“You sure?”_

_“Hoi.”_

_“Then I’m counting on you, partner.”_

In current situation, it was the best solution-with Oishi observing situation, while Eiji did the fighting; another plus was redhead thought, grinning inwardly, none other regular had as much experience in fending off annoying, elder siblings as him, he knew all the tactics used: from playing dumb to turning tables on the other person. The only problem would be…

‘Saaa, Eiji. Don’t tease your kouhais, you know what he meant.’

Fuji-fucking-genius-middle-child-Shuuske. He could have had the experience in fending off a big group of annoying siblings, but Fuji had both experience in fending elder siblings off and _being_ an annoying elder sibling himself. Eiji didn’t have to ask Yuuta to know his friend had mastered this skill as well.

So it was a challenge… Well, Eiji thought to himself, it’s probable that even six Fuji Yumikos wouldn’t be enough to replace one of his siblings. That meant he had upper hand in fending off, while Fuji had in being fended off. Better stick to this.

‘I don’t tease, nya. Just ask a question.’

Fuji sighed, tough Eiji could see glimmer of blue beneath brown fringe. Fuji must have seen the challenge and actually accepted it. Redhead decided their thoughts matched each other at that moment just as much as his and Oishi’s usually did.

_“It’s show time.”_

‘I’ll give you a hint, Eiji, since you pretend to be dumb enough to need it. Relationship’ Eiji almost missed out the final word as he had hard time deciding whenever tensai was trying to annoy him, offend him, or compliment him. One was sure-he wanted Eiji to out.

‘Oooh, you mean that Momo-chin’s date with that Fudoumine girl last week actually wasn’t the last one?’

Fifteen-love, thought triumphantly Eiji as Momoshiro sputtered, and Inui opened his notebook elsewhere to scribble new information about sophomore. But it wasn’t time to rejoice, not yet, as Fuji was known for his counters…

‘No, not about Momo’s relationships with girls, Eiji. It’s actually the relationship of yours and Oishi that concern us.’

Eiji stared at angelic smile of the prodigy. Well, that was really straightforward, in Fuji’s scale at least.

Eiji gently leaned against Oishi to warn him about his answer.

‘Well, duh. You should know this one, you see us every day at the practice. We’re partners.’

Few strangled chokes and a disappointed look from Fuji. What, was he disappointed that Eiji was giving up so easily?

_“Just you watch, Fujiko.”_

‘C’mon, guys, if that’s what’s bothering you, you should have just asked buchou not to pair us up anymore. It’s pretty hard not to be partners when in every match you’re in the same Doubles, you know?’ he said, crossing his arms.

A glare from Tezuka meant “you’ll be running until you drop”; a glare from Fuji didn’t bring a physical threat, but somehow, Eiji found it more scary. Has he overdid it? Nope, Fuji’s closed eyes and smiled; first was Tsubame Gaeshi, so now it would be Higuma Otoshi, right?…

‘Well, Eiji, if that was the only meaning, why would Oishi flinch behind you?’

…and on the baseline of this match stood Oishi. Damn. Eiji felt a shift behind him and minimally shook his head in answer to it.

“ _Sorry.”_

_“Not your fault.”_

‘Could you please stop doing that?!’ Momo anything but moaned and Eiji looked at him, honestly confused. ‘Talking like…like…like just this moment ago.’

_“Whoops.”_

_“Yeah, whoops.”_

‘Eiji-Senpai!’ Momo whined, then deciding he won’t get anything from Eiji, turned to his vice-captain. ‘Oishi-senpai!’

‘Sorry, Momo, but I really don’t get what you mean by talking.’ Oishi answered in his sincerest voice, and Eiji wondered whether Oishi really didn’t get it, or he himself just rubbed off of the vice-captain too much.

_“The latter is more probable. Surprisingly.”_

_“I’m not this naive, you know.”_

_“Hooi, sorry.”_

‘There is 95% probability that by “talking” Momoshiro meant sign play to which you use whole body instead of just your hands like normal pairs. Other 5% suggest he’s just seeing things. Ii data.’ Inui scribbled something down. Eiji glared at the green notebook, wondering how many laps he’d get for stealing and drowning it in the water post.

Well, it didn’t matter, as Tezuka’s glare earlier suggested. And was suggesting now as the captain opened his mouth.

'All of us meant your relationship outside the courts that obviously changed to a romantic one.’

“I didn’t even get to Kagerou Zutsumi.” Fuji’s slightly not-smiling face was telling, but whatever Eiji could have said in defense to that was drowned by a powerful cough. Eiji jumped up then promptly turned to see his wheezing partner bowed in half. Eiji glared at his captain, patting Oishi’s back.

'Warn before dropping a zero-shiki, could you, captain. Oishi, you okay there?’

As everybody tried to work through the exclamation of redhead, his partner nodded slowly and answered silently.

'Don’t try to swallow when you’re surrounded. What’ll we do?’

Turning tables on Tezuka won’t work, and mind games meant playing with Fuji’s counters. While Eiji knew he could pull it off, he also knew he would be dragging Oishi into it, so…

'Maybe just answer, Oishi, Eiji. We won’t mind any option…and of course we’ll apologize if it is all a mistake.’ Taka spoke up for the first time since assuming his place, and Eiji, looking at his honest face, felt a little guilty for thinking of using it as an escape route.

Also, he didn’t want to neglect his love; because, despite what Oishi has said about endorphines and all these other little things that were responsible for enamoring people and ceased to exist after some time, Eiji was sure of what he felt to his partner; he didn’t want to hold hands(it was easier to slung his arm over his shoulder), he didn’t want to wave at him shyly from his hip or whatever it was called (why bother if it was easier to just tackle-glomp him or wave?), he didn’t want to shyly smile (grinning was better!) or exchange sweet words (new tactics and formations were more practical, plus funny). But he also wanted to snuggle when asleep, wanted to kiss and pet, play tennis and have fun together. He knew it wasn’t normal relationship of two doubles partners but he didn’t, couldn’t help it, not when Oishi felt the same.

Right. Maybe this time, too, their feelings would unify at one point where they would be able to answer whatever pinch they were facing right now. Oishi’s face was always an open book for him, the same his face was for his partner; looking at each other, they could communicate even without any movement.

_“I want to tell them, but…”_

_“It’s_ _scary.”_

 _“Well,_ _yeah. It is.”_

_“I don’t want to ruin our friendships.”_

_“But I don’t want to hide something so big, either.”_

_“Shall we risk it?”_

_“Or shall we not?”_

_“We don’t know anymore.”_

_“It’s not like that silence isn’t suggesting them something. Maybe they think we’re trying to gently break to them that we’re straight…”_

_“And Yamabuki will win the Nationals without Akutsu. Yeah.”_

'Cornered, aren’t we?’ softly admitted Oishi. Eiji pouted.

'It’s all Fujiko’s fault, nya! No other option!’

'Well, Eiji that was pretty-’ said genius started, but surprisingly was interrupted by Inui.

’-true, even though I must confess being an organizator of the big part of this event. Should we take it as your commitment?’ Data player pen was poised at ready, awaiting an agreement to his opinion, when the steely voices answered him at once.

'No.’ it wasn’t that much of a surprise Eiji protested, but Oishi avoided sounding so…definitely, and even his expression, almost boring holes in the data expert, was out of place. His partner, after one look at him, backed off and let him answer for both of them.

'We’re not committing to anything, Inui. Experiencing feelings that go beyond friendship isn’t a crime, you know. We don’t know what really is our relationship, but yeah, you can probably call it love. I love Eiji-’ here, blackhead halted, eyes widening, before he suddenly turned to his partner. 'Did I just confess to you? In front of our team?’

Eiji, caught off guard by his partner expression, burst out laughing.

'You just did, nya! And you said you want a special way, too! So you have it now!’ he grinned widely, for a moment forgetting that all of their teammates were staring at them as if they suddenly proclaimed themselves each other’s lost brother. 'Just so you know, I am not answering by blushing, crying and jumping you…or maybe the last one, just a little.’

Everybody shook out of their stupors at the well-known picture of redhead pouncing his partner and squeezing him with all his might. Echizen squirmed, feeling a ping of sympathy for the fukubuchou.

For him, those were Squeezes of Doom.

‘And as such, I proclaim you the husband and the husband. Can we go now?’ Momo broke the silence, making both his senpais look at him, matching blushes raising to their faces.

‘What?’

‘Momoshiro. You’re running laps.’ Announced Tezuka. Echizen pulled his cap down with a silent ‘mada mada dane.’

‘It has been bothering them to the point they didn’t tell even other third-years, Momo.’ Kawamura explained captain’s motives. ‘You should be a little more considerate. Congratulations, you two.’

‘Wait. Wait for a moment. Just wait.’ Eiji waved his hands, but didn’t unlatch his legs from his partner’s waist, trusting Oishi to keep him from slipping down. ‘You mean you don’t mind?’

‘Well-‘

‘If this cures your obvious pining, then of course no.’ Fuji waved his hand merrily. It seemed the result amused him enough to make him forget about how short the game leading up to it was. ‘I’m sure Inui would like to know for how long you’ve been aware of it, though-‘

‘You’d like to, as well, considering you were the one gathering bets from the club members.’ Inui interrupted, making Eiji finally land on the floor (safely), as Oishi exclaimed:

‘There have been bets going around?! Tezuka, you tolerated this?’

‘I believe that’s not the part you should be worried about here-‘ Taka started uneasily, interrupted as Tezuka proclaimed.

‘Fuji, you’ll be running laps tomorrow, as well, for spreading hazard habits in the club surroundings. Inui, you’re running with him for not stopping him. Echizen, if you make another snark remark, you join them; Kawamura, you don’t need to join, I know your father wanted your help for tomorrow and Kaidoh, you can join if you think it will help you with your training.’

Here the captain turned to his no.1 doubles, clearly fed up with the whole scene.

‘You’ll be running, too, if you don’t sort those things out after we leave the clubroom. Oishi, you have the key.’

Eiji waited for the door to shut after last of the regulars to exclaim:

‘He could have done that in the beginning. Mou!’

‘Now, now, I bet he didn’t knew that’s what Fuji meant by bonding experience.’ Oishi put a hand on his shoulder, and Eiji turned to look at him.

‘He said Fuji said something like that?! It’s an obvious tensai trap!’

‘Not everyone knows those things the way you do, Eiji.’ Oishi chuckled, before retracing his hand in a sudden movement that made Eiji raise an eyebrows. ‘Uh…about the…well…’

‘Oishi.’ Second part of Golden Pair turned to fully face his partner. ‘After all this, you’re getting embarrassed just now?!’

‘Well…it’s… no…it’s-‘ Oishi sighed, before rubbing his face. ‘It’s just caught up with me! The fact that I’ve just confessed to you! In front of the guys! And I still don’t have your answer!’

‘Well, it’s over and- wait.’ Eiji recalled last few minutes. ‘I seriously didn’t answer you?’

‘Well, why I would be so nervous otherwi-Eijmmph!‘ Oishi was cut off by redhead leaping at him, wrapping his arms around blackhead’s shoulder and pressing their lips together.

‘You knew I’m not the man of the words.’ Eiji said, for a moment letting go of his partner’s lips with a grin that widened only after Oishi initiated another kiss with a short: ‘Yeah, knew that for pretty long now.’

_“We never needed many of them anyway.”_

 

**Author's Note:**

> The Prince of tennis (thankfully or not) doesn't belong to me. It belongs to Konomi Takeshi and I'm still surprised how he keeps his figure with Valentine's results xD  
> Back to the topic, this is one of the works that were finished in about 90% in the span of two sittings, day after day, and then waited half a year for my muse to return -,-'  
> That's why I decided to post it now, otherwise it will wait to the end of the world for me to get my four letters together and beta it properly. Hope you've enjoyed it as much as I did, or at least, managed to enjoy some Golden Pair/Seigaku silliness^^


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